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Their Eastern Approaches

I systematically follow Edward Lucas’s blog “Eastern Approaches” at The Economist. Yestarday I read an interesting post about EU-Russia visa liberalization. Lucas published this particular article at The Economist’s sister publication in Brussels, European Voice, that carries a weekly column called “Wil(d)er Europe”. Excerpt from article:

Leaving rhetoric aside, the issue is really about two things. One is fairness. Should Russia get a deal that is better (perhaps dramatically better) than what is on offer to the countries of the ‘Eastern Partnership’, such as Ukraine, Georgia or Moldova? The EU has repeatedly criticised the Russian policy of “passportisation” in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two breakaway regions of Georgia where ties with Moscow have been bolstered by the generous provision of Russian passports. If visa liberalisation now made it easier for such Russian passport-holders to get to the EU, it would be outrageously unfair. It would also undermine the attractiveness (and thus sovereignty) of the countries that we are trying to help.

Read the rest on my blog:

Visa-free travel between Russia and the EU? Yes, but not yet

The political momentum behind visa-free travel between Russia and the European Union is growing. It is supported by the big European countries and the European Parliament, and has the enthusiastic support of the Russian leadership. Speaking in Krasnoyarsk recently, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, said that the majority of EU countries back the idea: those that oppose it did so for “political” reasons.

That is an interesting use of the word “political”. One could just as well say that the countries that favour the idea do so for “political” reasons. In their case, they put good relations with Russia ahead of other priorities.

Leaving rhetoric aside, the issue is really about two things. One is fairness. Should Russia get a deal that is better (perhaps dramatically better) than what is on offer to the countries of the ‘Eastern Partnership’, such as Ukraine, Georgia or Moldova? The EU has repeatedly criticised the Russian policy of “passportisation” in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two breakaway regions of Georgia where ties with Moscow have been bolstered by the generous provision of Russian passports. If visa liberalisation now made it easier for such Russian passport-holders to get to the EU, it would be outrageously unfair. It would also undermine the attractiveness (and thus sovereignty) of the countries that we are trying to help.

Second is the rule of law. To have a visa-free deal, Russia needs at the minimum to issue biometric passports, to accept international conventions on the repatriation of illegal immigrants, and to treat EU citizens visiting Russia fairly – in particular by abolishing the infamous registration requirement.

A wider question is whether the Russian authorities share, even remotely, European values on questions of civic freedoms and human rights.

Thinking on this can easily get muddled. Visa-free travel is not the same as passport-free travel. Nobody is suggesting (at least yet) that Russia joins Schengen. Russians will still face passport checks at the border. Prominent wrongdoers – such as the officials responsible for the death in prison of the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky last November – can still be blacklisted.

The existing system does a pretty poor job. It keeps out many decent people who are deterred by the rudeness and expense of getting a visa. It does not keep out gangsters, spies and other riff-raff. It creates a lucrative corrupt business for those who know how to work the system. It creates the impression of a ‘fortress Europe’ that is more interested in keeping people out than in dealing decently with its neighbours. It justifies the bad behaviour of the Russian visa bureaucracy. Abolishing visas would free time and money for other things.

Abolishing visas would also highlight the Kremlin’s own arbitrary and paranoid policies. It will be interesting to see what happens when Western critics of the Kremlin who have been unable for years to get Russian visas present themselves at the border. Will they be denied entry?

Ideally, the place to start would be Kaliningrad. The organisational challenge of issuing authentic biometric passports to the one million or so inhabitants of that region is manageable. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, supported the move during her recent visit to Lithuania (though she said there was a “long way” to go). Poland is pushing the idea hard (though it prefers the wider approach), and says it may introduce it unilaterally if necessary. A special deal for Kaliningrad would also highlight the particular need to integrate Russia’s westernmost region into its European neighbourhood. For just that reason, the authorities in Russia may drag their feet. After all, visas, like everything else, are a “political” question.